A Chinese defector revealed some of the innermost secrets of the Chinese military

A defector from China has revealed some of the innermost secrets of the Chinese government and military, including details of its nuclear command
and control system, according to American intelligence officials.

Businessman Ling Wancheng disappeared from public view in California last year shortly after his brother, Ling Jihua, a former high-ranking official
in the Communist Party, was arrested in China on corruption charges.

Ling Wancheng, the defector, has been undergoing a debrief by FBI, CIA, and other intelligence officials since last fall at a secret location in the
United States, said officials familiar with details of the defection who spoke on condition of anonymity. The defector is said to be a target of
covert Chinese agents seeking to capture or kill him.

Among the information disclosed by Ling are details about the procedures used by Chinese leaders on the use of nuclear weapons, such as the steps
taken in preparing nuclear forces for attack and release codes for nuclear arms.

Other secrets revealed included details about the Chinese leadership and its facilities, including the compound in Beijing known as Zhongnanhai. That
information is said to be valuable for US electronic spies, specifically for cyber intelligence operations targeting the secretive Chinese
leadership.

Spokesmen for the White House, FBI, CIA, and Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the case.

Other officials said Ling defected sometime in the summer of 2015 after his brother, once the senior administrative aide to former Chinese leader Hu
Jintao, came under suspicion for leaking state secrets.

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This is probably one of the worst security breaches China has had in the last few decades. The amount of information / type of information details the
highest level secrets the Chinese government has, including information on their nuclear forces, command and control for their nuclear forces, pass
codes for their nukes in addition to compromising secure communications for their leadership.

The defector is actually the brother of a Chinese official who was arrested last year in China. His position in the government was to oversee the
archiving of top secret documents. Apparently he started to make copies and stored those copies with his brother who was living in California. The
brother told him that should he be arrested by Chinese authorities he is to turn the documents over to the US government, which is what happened.

The defection was triggered by the arrest of Ling’s brother, Ling Jihua, a former presidential aide who secretly obtained some 2,700 internal
documents from a special Communist Party unit he headed until 2012. The unit was in charge of storing and archiving classified documents.

The fall out from this should be interesting to say the least. The damage done to the Chinese government / military is staggering...

Read the entire article to get an idea of the damage done...

To put it in perspective the guy who collected the documents - his position in the Chinese government -

The position is equivalent to that of the White House chief of staff, with broad access to the most sensitive details available exclusively to
senior Chinese leaders.

Their is massive corruption in the Chinese military. I would be surprised if they have any secrets left that have not been sold for a profit. The
worst mistake the Chinese ever made was putting the military in the business of making money and running companies. Even though they have ended that
the culture of making a profit at the expense of the military is still considered normal. Granted is not near the level of the Russian's who have
literally sold anything they could get their hands on.

I read something once that said the Chinese government tolerates a certain amount of corruption. The further that regional governmental bodies get
from the Central government, the less influence that Beijing has over them. So allowing a certain amount of corruption makes those remote regional
governments more loyal.

You know, when I think about it, a lot of China's technology does look like stuff that came from the US anyway. It would be funny if all they got
were the specs and designs of the technology the stole from us originally.

Well the current leader of China is on a corruption crack down. Although there are reports that in addition to corruption the crackdowns are also
targeting individuals put in place by previous governments / leaders / what ever you want to call it.

Interesting point. I think it's standard procedure when a new government comes into power to replace key people with others who are known to be loyal
to the new regime. But hasn't the current regime been in power for a while?

Those actions may also be related to the Chinese government's attempt to move their economy to be more consumer based. Perhaps the previous level of
corruption is not compatible with the new paradigm.

I read something once that said the Chinese government tolerates a certain amount of corruption. The further that regional governmental bodies get
from the Central government, the less influence that Beijing has over them. So allowing a certain amount of corruption makes those remote regional
governments more loyal.

I wonder if the same applies to the military.

-dex

They have tried crackdowns on the military even leading to executions. However, is this something that is so wide spread among its officer corps that
it would seem impossible to stop in the short term with out a major purge and that could lead to a coup. Maybe in a slow long term campaign they can
turn things around. But, it mostly deals with collaboration between active and retired officers. And those retired officers setting up those active
officers for cushy retirement jobs doing exactly what they are doing. When they pulled the military out of running companies, retired officers just
bought them and kept it going. Corruption in China is in many ways a way of life but, after Desert Storm China saw how completely out classed the
were by the US they began to try and reform more into a modern western style military. Part of that was removing the corruption element from the
military. And shrinking the size of its forces to the would be smaller but more lethal like the US. It has been slow going. Although the have made
much better progress than the Russians. Mostly because the Chinese have enough volunteers without using conscripts and the Russians can not get
volunteers.

originally posted by: StoutBroux
I think it's funny that the US is all gung ho on harboring a Chinese "whistle blower" while wanting to jail Snowden for for the exact same
thing......treason. What a bunch of hypocrites!

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